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Legion baseball: Black Sox eye another trip to Terre Haute

Veteran catcher Mitch Mallek returns to the Plover Post 543 American Legion baseball team this season and is one of many reasons the Black Sox are positioned to challenge for a Class AAA state championship again this season.
(Photo:
Thomas Kujawski/For Stevens Point Journal Media
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PLOVER – Some people may not consider Terre Haute, Ind., in early August to be a dream destination.

For the Plover American Legion Post 543 baseball team, however, there was no place they would rather have been last summer.

In fact, the Black Sox loved the home of the Class AAA National Regional so much, they would love to make another trip to Terre Haute with the hopes of eventually winding up in Shelby, N.C., for the Class AAA World Series.

Considering all the returning pieces from last year’s state championship — the third in the history of the Plover program — the Black Sox have every reason to believe another state title could be in the cards.

It won’t hurt that Plover will host the state tournament Aug. 3 to 7 at Memorial Field.

“We don’t talk about the number of wins or conference and state championships. We talk about being the best team we can be come tournament time,” said Plover manager Wayne Sankey, whose team is coming off a 39-10 season and a sixth straight Wisconsin Valley Legion Legion title.

As managers tend to do, Sankey sounded a cautionary note with the 2014 season still in its infancy.

Plover started its season well Wednesday as Alex Lee and Sterling King combined on a no-hitter in an 11-0 win over Merrill to open Valley play.

Expectations are high, and since just about all the pitching and a large portion of the hitting returns from the regional team, it’s easy to understand why this season has a chance to be even more special for Post 543.

The coach might not be quite ready to crown the defending Valley champions the favorite for championship No. 7 in a row —and possibly more — there is no hiding how optimistic some of the players are.

“We have a lot of guys who can flat-out play,” center fielder and leadoff hitter Jon Barnes said. “We’re looking to have a really good year, and we all have very high hopes this season.”

A lot of that optimism centers on a pitching staff that brings back almost everyone from a group that posted a 2.59 earned run average a year ago.

Plover has enjoyed its share of deep pitching staffs in recent years, but it might be hard to find a group that can measure up to the likes of Austin Schulfer, Cal Giese, Lee, King, Ryan Makuski, Tyler Nalbach and Brett Barton.

The focus will be on making sure all those talented arms are healthy and available at the time of the season when it matters most.

“The main thing is we want to stay healthy,” said Sankey, noting he brought in a reliever for Lee after six innings of no-hit pitching because Lee’s pitch count had reached 91. “We don’t want to overextend anyone.

“I don’t know if this is the deepest group of pitchers we’ve had, but as far as the top guys, we may have three or four No. 1s and No. 2s. We just want to make sure they’re all ready at tournament time.”

Barnes is the spark plug at the top of a batting order that also comes back virtually intact, including a potent middle of the order that includes Mitch Mallek, King and Giese.

In addition, Alex Slower, Ryan Makuski and Barnes can create a lot of disruption on the basepaths. DJ Drohner offers a productive bat near the bottom of the order.

Plover finished with a respectable .308 batting average last season, and with another year of college in the case of some returning players or a successful high school season for many others, there is no reason to believe the Black Sox can’t improve on that number.

So is there another trip to Terre Haute or beyond on the itinerary this year?

“We’re very excited about what we can do, and we’re very excited to host the state tournament,” Sankey said. “We want to make sure we walk into our (state) regional on top of our game.

“We had a good showing at the state tournament (in 2013) and an even better showing at the (national) regional. Having that type of experience is rare, and hopefully we can carry it forward.”

Scott A. Williams can be reached at 715-345-2282. Find him on Twitter as @SPJScottWill